Epidem-Fic!

Signups are open for the 2025 round. For more information about requests, offers, and matching, please see the Rules and FAQ post.

Requested and offered tags must come from the Relationships Tagset and the Freeforms Tagset. If a tag doesn't appear in the dropdown menus in the signup form, but does appear in the tagset, please copy and paste it over from the tagset.

Thank you to our tagmods for helping out with nominations!

Nominations are now open for the 2025 round. Please refresh yourself on the nomination guidelines before nominating. The freeform tagset has rolled over from last year, while the relationships tagset is new for this round. Happy nominating!

Epidem-Fic is a multifandom fanwork exchange focused on sickfic & fanart. Works in this exchange should be depicting illness, illness symptoms, or themes relating to illness. Epidem-Fic works can be any rating.

Rules:

1. Participants must be at least 18 years of age.
2. No kinkshaming.
3. All fic must be a minimum of 1,000 words in a completed state with a beginning, middle, and end. There is no maximum word count.
4. All art must be at least one finished piece in a quality you would be happy to receive as a gift.
5. Works need to feature illness, illness symptoms, or themes of illness. All works must include one medium, one fandom, one relationship, and one freeform tag from one of your recipient’s requests.
6. All gifts must respect the recipient’s DNWs (Do Not Wants) if they are included in the Ao3 signup.
7. Maintain anonymity until creator reveals. Do not contact your recipient directly. If any problems or questions arise, please contact the mods. Do not post about your assignment publicly before creator reveals.
8. Be civil, be respectful.

FAQ
( Read more... )
Nominations

Epidem-Fic will have two tagsets, one for Freeform tags, and one for Fandom and Relationship tags. If this event runs again in the future, the Freeform tagset will be carried over, while the Fandoms/Relationships tagset will reset.

Relationship nominations must specify at least one sick character.

Please see the nominations post for more details on where and how to nominate. Nominations that are not in the proper formats may be cleaned up or rejected.

Signups
You can edit/delete your signup until signups close.

Requests
You will have 10 fandom slots, with room for 1-10 relationships and 4-20 freeform tags from the tagsets. You may repeat fandoms with different ships/tags, but you must request at least three substantially unique fandoms to be guaranteed a gift. If you go to pinch hits with less than three fandoms, you may contact the mods to add more fandoms to your request.

You can request fic, art, or both for each request. You can also specify whether you are open to treats in unrequested mediums in your optional details.

Optional Details and Do Not Wants (DNWs)
Please include details about what you would like to see in a fanwork in the optional details section of your signup. Be aware that, aside from DNWs, optional details are optional. You may want to include optional prompts, themes you like in fic, art likes, preferred ratings, or anything else you would like your creator to know. You can also optionally link to a letter with more information on your signup.

DNWs must be included in the optional details section on Ao3 to be enforceable. DNWs posted in other places (Dreamwidth profiles, exchange letters) will not be enforced. Include anything that would ruin a gift for you here.
Mods will not enforce DNWs in the following situations:

• DNWs that box your creator into creating one specific work (“DNW anything except Mickey Mouse in a hospital bed...”)
• DNWs that contradict your request (Request - Harry Potter, “DNW witches and wizards”)
• Overly vague DNWs (“DNW gross kinks!”)
• Broad DNWs for the exchange theme. Specifications are fine (“DNW terminal illness,” “DNW sick!Crowley” work as long as they don’t contradict your requests), but broad illness-related DNWs may not be enforced (“DNW sick characters”).

Offers
You may offer 1-10 fandoms with 1-2 mediums, 1-10 relationships, and 4-20 freeform tags per offer.


Matching
This exchange works on “or” matching. You will match on ONE medium + ONE fandom + ONE relationship + ONE freeform regardless of how many are in your request.

If your offers do not match at least one request, you will be asked to add offers to your signup via your Ao3 email. If you fail to add offers by the end of the matching period, your signup will be deleted. It is a good idea to make sure you are matchable before signups close.

Pinch Hits
In the event someone has no creator match, they will go out as a pinch hit right away. Pinch hits will be posted to this comm.

Anyone can create a pinch hit, even if they are not signed up to the exchange. To claim a pinch hit, please comment on the pinch hit post with your Ao3 username or email the mods. Pinch hits must include a requested medium/fandom/relationship/freeform combination, must meet the word count or art minimums, and must not include any of the recipient’s DNWs.

Assignments
You must create one new, complete, and standalone fanwork including illness, symptoms of illness, or themes relating to illness. Your work must include one medium, fandom, relationship, and freeform from one of your recipient’s requests. You are required to include one requested freeform tag, but you may include as many as you like.

Fics must be at least 1,000 words with a beginning, middle, and end.

Art must be a finished piece in a quality you would be happy to receive as a gift. Art should be on unlined paper or a digital equivalent.

Works must respect the recipient’s DNWs. If you think your recipient has an unenforceable DNW, please email the mods.
Works should not have any AI generated art or text. This includes AI generated cover art for fics.

Posting
Treats may be posted to the collection at any time, given they include one fandom, one relationship, and one freeform from one of the recipient’s requests and respects their DNWs. Participants may choose to allow treats in unrequested mediums (art for fic-only requests and vice-versa) in their optional details. Treats do not need to meet the minimum requirements for fic and art, but they must be complete works at the time of posting.

Assignments must be posted by the deadline at 11:59 EST. Participants that have not posted by this time will be treated as no-shows anf automatically defaulted unless they have contacted the mods for an extension. If you know you cannot complete your assignment, please default sooner rather than later.

Works will be revealed once every person has a gift, including anyone on the pinch hit list with at least three unique fandoms.

There is a mandatory anon period for works in the collection. Works will stay anonymous for one week after reveals. Please refrain from talking about your assignment in public, even if you don’t think your recipient will see it. Artists may sign or watermark their work, even during the anon period.

Mod Email: jamezbranwen+epidemfic@gmail.com